Category Archives: Random
New Pictures
Here are some more new pictures from my classroom:
Our Meal worms…
Meal worms are really easy to keep and you get to watch the life cycle happen over and over again. I just put corn meal in the bottom and some apple slices and carrots. You also will need to add some water in a dish that the meal worms cannot get in to keep the humidity up.
I got the 2 tanks, lids, a gram scale (for weighing the meal worms), 2 microscopes, and a hand held microscope from a Donors Choose grant in May.
Here are some new pictures of my Literacy Work Stations.
This is the ABC/Word Work Station.
Right now, we have letter cards on a ring in the bag with Wikki Stix. The children make the letters with the Wikki Stix.
The children also have the opportunity to put Wikki Stix on each others names at the ABC/Word Work Station. These are laminated.
Here is our Listening Station. The black and white bags hold the books and CD. The headphones are stored in a cleaning tote. I am using the head headphones from my non-working leap pads.
I also have several books and their CD’s available on the ledge just above the books. I try to put the newest titles on the ledge and the older ones in the bags.
The is our Pocket Chart Station. Last year, I used a full size chart, but this year, I decided to make it more kid-sized and used these pocket charts from the Dollar Spot at Target.
I took all of my kids pictures and glued them on sentence strips next to their names and then laminated them. The children sort the names by “Boy/Girl” or Alphabetical order. I’ve also added a poem about Pets (you can find it in the Interactive Charts Book that goes along with Building Blocks).
This is my Drama Work Station with the Chicka Chicka Tree in the top bag. Two other bags also now hold the drama props for Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Mouse Paint (I got them all through a Donors Choose grant).
A look inside the Chicka Chicka Bag. There is the large tree, the velcro letters, and an copy of the book.
The Brown Bear, Brown Bear bag. The book is missing…! 😉
Overhead Work Station
These are the overhead transparencies I made to go along with Brown Bear and Chicka Chicka. The children use the pictures of them I printed on transparency sheets (see two posts ago) and put them in the blanks. They then read the words and then put a new child’s picture in.
I also made some to go along with Cookie’s Week and I’ll post those soon.
Big Book Work Station
I found these cute pointers in the Dollar Spot at Target and we use them for pointing to words in Big Books and for reading the names and words at Pocket Chart Station.
Now for a few random things! 🙂
I got these puzzles at Wal-Mart for $3.00 each. They show the life cycle of a frog and a butterfly. We’ll be using the butterfly puzzle next week, when we learn about Monarchs. I’ll have it in my Science Work Station.
I also found these cute signs in the Target Dollar Spot. They are great for using signals rather than trying to talk over all the children! 🙂 I use them as reminders when we are sitting on the floor. They work really well!
I had a few questions about the kind of hooks I use to hang all the bags up around my room in my Work Stations. Here is a picture of them.
Here’s a close up of them.
I’ll be updating with more pictures in a little while! Enjoy your Labor Day weekend! 😉
Kristen 🙂
Updated Literacy Work Stations
Hi All!
Hope your summer vacations are all going well! I decided to re-read Debbie Diller’s Literacy Work Stations: Making Centers Work book, just to refresh my memory and I have a few updates I will share with you. Please also know that I am changing much of the way my classroom is set up as well as adding a few new Literacy Work Stations. I’ll post an updated layout soon. Each time I read this book, something new pops out at me…I’ve been wondering my kids have a difficult time keeping the library tidy–well DUH, it’s because I had too many books out at once! Maybe I’ve over thought them in the past, but it seems that some of those little details will finally stick if you re-read them enough! 🙂 So you will see some of those AHA thoughts below.
I’m going to just type what I’ve written in my notebook and hope that it might spark some ideas for you! 🙂
Literacy Work Stations to-do: (general)
copy and laminate pages 212, 201, 199, 190, 188, 182, 172, 143-160
make a reduced copy of pgs. 143-160 for pocket chart x2
Library Work Station:
label shelves with fiction/non fiction
get new tubs (done)
label tubs with authors name, picture
add plants
open faced shelf must be moved here
put colored dots on book cover to match to tub
do not put out too many books in the beginning, cover them with a drape
assign a “Classroom Librarian” job
Our favorite books graph
maybe a new rug to anchor space
small table (from my son’s room) and chairs, or just a table and big pillows, with a small lamp
Big Book WS
place sticky notes with sight words written on them in the back covers of the big books, the children can then find them and match them to the sticky notes
chart of class names
ABC chart (for sounding out words in books)
pointers
new pointer bucket
move fly swatters with rectangles cut in them to BBWS
Writing WS (this station is getting a new home on a table rather than at the wood desk with cubbies)
use two display boards for backdrop
display color words, number words, alphabet, I can write about…( ideas of what to write about)
stacking paper trays
cups for pencils, markers, colored pencils, crayons (all labeled)
stapler
clipboards
dry erase boards
classlist on display board
words related to science theme (in sheet protector)
word books
handwriting strips on the table
sentence strips cut in 1/2 for the children’s use
building blocks posters clipped to display boards
Drama WS
flannel board
drama props
books
popsicle sticks with childrens pictures on them
ABC/Word Study WS (this was two different stations–combining into one because there was lots of overlap)
word wall
ABC memory (match upper to lower case, sight words, etc.)
letter sort cards
playdough letters
wikki stick letters
ABC puzzles
ABC books
magnetic word tiles
magnetic board sectioned off for sorts (for quarters each with a velcro dot at the top for labeling what is to be sorted)
small pocket chart for sorting names, words, etc
letter matching sheets (previously posted on my blog)
Poetry/Pocket Chart (I’ve never had Poetry station, but these two stations overlap so much, it seemed natural to put them together, especially in Kindergarten)
small pocket charts
poems written on sentence strips (small) for taking apart and putting back together
poems printed on 8 1/2 x 11 paper that match those on sentence strips so children can match the words on sentence strips to those on the page
Overhead
transparencies of poems used at poetry/pocket chart station
Computer
get rid of long computer table and 2 computers (they don’t work) and replace with 2 student desks-children can store the keyboard and head phones in the desk
Listening WS
use bucket meant for cleaning supplies to hold headphones and 3 books+tapes/CD
burn a copy of the CD’s before givng the children a copy
2 headsets
pillows or small table and chairs
Science WS (new this year)
will be in the area where my library was
bookshelf specifically for science books
items to look at, examine, talk/write about
store science journals under the table
experiments that we conduct will “live” here
posters (weather, birds, nutrition, animals, life cycles, etc)
small chairs/maybe a table
I’m not finished re-reading it yet, but I will update when I am with the rest of the list! 😉
Let me know if you have any questions–my list is kind of random!
Kristen 🙂
Kristen's Kindergarten 